@sueinmn Good thoughts here! Is this something you and your husband are considering?
Ginger

Hi there @sueinmn, yes I have tried some of these options. And my life has certainly changed. Jay and I had been going back and forth between my mountain home in Idyllwild to Adam's Landing here in St. Cloud. Two summers ago in 2018, with the realization that my known health conditions were progressing, leaving me in greater pain and discomfort, I decided to perform a test. I flew back to the mountain with the goal of seeing if I could manage by myself for a month. Living in a valley at the top of a mountain range brings with it lots of unusual living life issues. Everything is "off the hill" especially medical facilities.

My granddaughter drove me up from San Diego and I settled in. Within a week or so the five plume fire was created by an arsonist. I was sitting playing mahjongg with friends when I got the call to evacuate.

I struggled with all of the evacuation details and found it difficult to get all the hot embers off my decks, refrigerators emptied and contents lugged to the transfer station, AKA the dump. So....we assessed our options and chose to sell my mountain home. The home we have in Minnesota lends itself to "aging in place". There is a guest suite that can be used for us when we need daily care. The main floor can accommodate the laundry in the overflow pantry. And we are planning a "kitchenette" for the guest suite.

Here's the great part.....I feel light as a feather. The house sold immediately while Jay was still doing 5 days a week of proton therapy at Mayo and we were staying at Hope Lodge. My friends face timed me and I made "stay or go" decisions remotely. We left Mayo and flew to CA with 3 days left before the close. So....not much of the sorting and decision making was left to be done. And emotionally, I held it all together.

My home was filled with art from my gallery and there was so much entertaining "stuff" because I would have 75 folks come for up close and personal evenings with my artists. I also had an office and studio for my design clients.

I gave all of it away.....to customers, friends and families of friends. There is great joy in giving. The coffee shop needed a microwave and the newspaper office needed a shredder. A newly married young couple needed furniture. Customers wanted pieces from their favorite artists. Although I think about some of the "released" items once in a while.....I am very comfortable living without the closets of objects that I had collected over the years. I have one box of keepsakes......my grandfather's pocket watch and a few envelopes with family history treasures. That's enough.

May you have happiness and the causes of happiness.
Chris

@sueinmn, Super suggestions and some are what I started practicing in earnest a couple of years ago.

Like many of you industrious warriors, though, who seemed to become energized by spending more time at home these last months, I developed this covid fog in which larger home projects became more instead of less daunting. With recycle and donation drop offs closed, I lost the incentive to cull and fill donate bags. Some of those have now reopened which has put me back on track for larger culling endeavors.

A few years ago, I started placing a large leaf bag in each bedroom closet, utility room and garage. Like other bags in the garage for cans, glass and paper recycle, I find it convenient to add to those bags because they signal they are "ever ready".

Before Covid, I'd begun accepting that I couldn't spend as much time or effort in the yard due to less energy and began slowly "revising" my landscape to make it less labor intensive. This was/is a difficult challenge because my yard has been/is my passion and nirvana. However, this year's fall landscape looks markedly different from that just a year ago. There are fewer perennials and shrubs, more space between plantings and a great deal more mulch overall.

While K.I.S.S.(keep it simple silly) has been the opposite of most of my life endeavors, I am now beginning to appreciate the results of paring down and reducing the landscape work.

Additionally, I begin reducing the number of investment holdings and that has saved time in tracking and reporting at tax time. Fewer quarterly reports from fewer financial institutions results in a win for me.

"Simplifying" is a great "user friendly" word and one I'm becoming better and better friends with. Thank you for suggesting it to all!